Kazmierczak Genealogy Reports Dec.7-2017

Rajewski Genealogy Reports Dec.7, 2017

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Last day in England.

Last day in England and gray and rainy but that didn't stop us from visiting another interesting house. Newark Park is a house of Tudor origin located near the village of Gloucester. It's only about 15 minutes from where w are staying. The house sits in an estate of 700 acres at the southern end of the Cotswold escarpment with views down the Severn Valley. The house and estate have been in the care of the National Trust since 1946. Newark Park was originally a four-story Tudor hunting lodge built between 1544 and 1556 for Sir Nicholas Poyntz who died in 1557. In 1600 the lodge was sold to the Low family of London who in 1672. The Lows owned Newark Park until 1722 when it was sold to the Harding family who after making some minor alterations sold it to James Clutterbuck. The Clutterbucks remodeled it into a four-square house in 1790.The Clutterbucks left Newark in 1860 and let it out, but even though it was tenanted, the occupants continued to make alterations and improvements. Mrs Annie Poole King family. The Kings stayed at Newark until 1949 when the last of the line died and the then owner, Mrs Power-Clutterbuck, gave Newark Park and its estates to the National Trust.
When the Trust took ownership they did not open Newark Park to the public but instead let it out to tenants who ran it as a nursing home. By 1970 the house was in a state of disrepair and the gardens overgrown. It was in this state that American architect Robert (Bob) Parsons (1920–2000), who had long expressed a desire to take on an English country house in need of repair, took the tenancy and began a painstaking program of renovation, conservation and rehabilitation to both the house and the grounds. It was due to Bob Parson's efforts that the architectural importance of the house was acknowledged and the Grade I listing achieved. Many people in the village still remember him.

We spent about three hours there walking around the grounds, visiting inside the house and having a quick lunch there before we returned home since it continued to rain. In the evening we went to dinner at the Ragged Cot, a local restaurant that is very popular.

We had a great time seeing the different places we went to, seeing rural England instead of big cities but best of all was just seeing and visiting with Jackie and Tony once again after too many years. The have hopes to visit us in Poznan next year.

Wouldn't you know it, after we got home, an hour later the sun came out.